Movie ideas buzzed through the air Wednesday morning as each young filmmaker described her unique approach she would like to bring to the big screen.

Girls Make Movies, a weeklong production camp for high school girls offered by the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts, began its fifth year Monday. Women faculty members from the Department of Cinema and Photography and volunteers teach the girls about how to plan, shoot and edit short films while living on campus.

Along with the production of the films and storytelling, the girls can participate in recreational activities such as bowling, swimming and a trip to Little Grassy Lake. Each evening they attend film screenings selected by faculty members followed by a discussion. At the end of the week, the girls invite their families to enjoy a complementary dinner and a screening of their final films.

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Professor Sarah Lewison, one of the founders of the camp, said the low enrollment of women in the Department of Cinema and Photography at SIU inspired her and other faculty members to create the camp specifically with girls in mind.

She said the economy of the region also plays a big role in how the camp was organized in the beginning stages.

“The region is really poor, this is one of the poorest parts of Illinois,” she said. “We just wanted it to be affordable. Anybody can come to it and that’s been really important to us.”

She said a large amount of financial support comes from the Illinois Broadcasting Association.

Lewison said each girl has access to the equipment in the MCMA checkout room as well as the computers in the New Media Center inside the Communications Buildings. She said this gives the girls adequate time to develop their films.

“They shouldn’t have to worry about the production anxieties most people have to contend with once they become full time students,” she said. “Instead, they can work on just really learning the cameras and really kind of figuring out how to translate their creativity and imaginations into a document that speaks to other people.”

Rosie Berkman, an SIU alumna, is in her fourth year working with the camp. In previous years she was a volunteer, but this year she taught a directing workshop.

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Berkman said she enjoys seeing the girls’ ideas take form.

“To just make little suggestions and all of a sudden there’s a light bulb that goes off,” she said. “Seeing all that come together is so inspiring and it’s so overwhelming and gratifying at the same time.”

Hannah Tate, a soon to be senior at Carterville High School, is in her second year at the camp.

Last summer, Tate made a documentary style film about her favorite color, pink.

Tate said she might take the same approach this year, but instead shift the theme to cuteness. She said she is interested in possibly pursuing animation in college but is unsure about which university she will attend.

“I really like that it encompasses all the different things about making movies,” Tate said. “It’s not just teaching you how to use a camera but teaching you how to make stories.”

Marissa Novel can be reached at [email protected].